


#Stucky (5 Phases of Tumblr Life)

by AlyxSvoboda125



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucky thinks Spock and Kirk are screwing, Established Relationship, M/M, Recovery, Shipping, Steve knows what's up, Tony is a Shit, Tumblr, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-20
Updated: 2015-01-20
Packaged: 2018-03-08 09:16:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3203939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyxSvoboda125/pseuds/AlyxSvoboda125
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Bucky recovers via Tumblr, becomes both a fangirl and a social activist, and Steve might actually have a clue what's up online (despite what Tony Stark thinks about the whole thing).</p>
            </blockquote>





	#Stucky (5 Phases of Tumblr Life)

Tony had been aiming for sardonic when he suggested Bucky use Tumblr to filter through his mess of emotions during what passed for pseudo-ex-Soviet assassin-torture victim rehab. He had been firmly of the belief that the "old men" couldn't figure out social networking of that nature between the pair of them, but with a YouTube tutorial, some kid names Peter Parker Bucky had met outside the New York Library, and more than a few late night phone calls to Sam Wilson, Bucky had figured it out quicker than he got his head screwed on right.

 

Starbucks32557 had been born and baptized into the Tumblr community.

 

His blog was, at first, decidedly "emo" according to Tony (ironstark1) who'd been hos first follower.

 

"Emo?" Steve asked archly, not even flinching when Bucky leaned into his side, fork stealing syrup-doused pancakes from his plate with one hand while the other scrolled through his Tumblr dashboard with the kind of intensity that had made him Hydra's go-to frozen assassin of choice for the last seventy years.

 

"Emo. Dark. Gloomy. Sort of Goth."

 

"No, Tony," Pepper commented, coming in to drop a kiss on his cheek as she poured herself a cup of coffee. "Morning Steve. Morning Bucky." Bucky grunted, and Pepper looked at Tony, "They're not the same not even remotely."

 

"Black. Weird. Depressive.

 

"Don't say that in a press conference. I won't help when dozens of angsty adolescents try to kill you. I just won't. You're on your own."

 

"Rhodey'll save me."

 

"Uh-huh," Pepper sipped her coffee genially.

 

Tony turned to Steve. "Never mind Capsicle will save me, won't you Cap?"

 

"Depends. Emo?"

 

"Skinny jeans. Band t-shirts. Weird. Multicolored hair. Piercings. Tattoos. Eyeliner and blurred gender norms. Things before your time."

 

Steve sighed, and Bucky glanced up from his phone to give Tony a narrow-eyed, disbelieving look. Tony held his hands up in surrender, and Bucky huffed, stealing Steve's coffee straight from his hands and downing half of it before offering it back, all without a single word. "Right," Steve started haltingly, "is this something Sam should be aware of?"

 

Tony opened his mouth to respond when Pepper slapped a hand over it. "No, no, everything's fine. It's all music, depressing quotes, and poetry. Don't listen to Tony."

 

Rolling his eyes, Tony tugged Pepper's hand away before confiding, "True. It could be worse, could be a hipster blog, right JARVIS?"

 

"Of course, sir, photography and coffee are awful," JARVIS commented with his usual brand of dry wit.

 

Bucky frowned and looked sideways at Tony before shifting his gaze to Steve with obvious confusion. Steve frowned and shook his head before glancing back to Tony and Pepper. "What's a hipster?"

 

When Bucky had been cleared from house arrest by his "not-SHIELD" appointed psychiatrist, they made the three hour drive from New York to Washington, setting up in Steve's new apartment, closer to Sam and somewhere that his neighbor wasn't a government-appointed glorified babysitter and someone hadn't been nearly assassinated in his living room. That, Steve thought, was probably just better for both of their mental health.

 

They fell into a routine easily enough: Steve and Sam doing morning runs while Bucky slept in, joining Sam's VA group for Bucky, Steve sitting in on art classes at a local university and pretending like he wasn't spending his coffee breaks combing through data on Hydra and Snapchatting back and forth with Bucky, sparring with Bucky. Steve was trying to 'cultivate new interests', which okay, yes, he'd read in a self-help book that wasn't necessarily geared towards twenty-six going on ninety-something year olds, but that meant taking art classes and going to tutorials for the computer (with people in their 80s who he got along with spectacularly well), and, apparently for Bucky, baking.

 

Or, at least, that's what he assumed when he came into the kitchen to find the ex-assassin with his hair twisted up into a loose bun and one of Steve's undershirts on while he whisked batter in a mixing bowl, a cookbook open beside you.

 

"Bucky?" Steve asked slowly.

 

"Steve," Bucky replied tonelessly, amusement dancing in the back of his sapphire eyes when he glanced over his shoulder at Steve.

 

"You're baking."

 

"No shit, punk."

 

"Okay," Steve started slowly, still confused.

 

The toilet flushed down the hall moments before Natasha appeared in the doorway, pausing to nod and smile at Steve. "Steve."

 

"Natasha. Are you responsible for the...uh..."

 

"Vatrushka," Natasha finished for him, hopping up onto the counter beside Bucky and peering into the bowl.

 

"Vatrushka?"

 

Bucky nods, "Vatrushka. It's a Russian cake. I saw it on Tumblr and remembered how much I liked them."

 

"Tumblr. Russian cakes. Got it." He didn't, actually, and the look Bucky tossed him said he didn't believe him anyway. Steve shook his head and looked to Natasha who tried to stick a finger into the batter only to be swatted away by Bucky. Steve leaned on the island counter and narrowed his eyes on the woman. "Aren't you supposed to be running down leads on Hydra with Clint? In Kiev?"

 

Natasha shrugged, "I was. Hence the cake."

 

"English, please."

 

"It was Natasha's picture. The vatrushka. So I called and asked her if she had a recipe." Bucky paused and narrowed his eyes on her, "You didn't need to come here and make it with me."

 

"You need social interaction," Natasha remarked. "And no," she remarked, narrowing her eyes on Bucky holding out a finger to Steve so he could taste the vatrushka batter, "Steve doesn't count because you two are codependent."

 

"I don't actually think we are," Steve remarked before frowning and looking over at Bucky in confusion, "I thought Tony said you were an emo blog."

 

"He _was_. It was awful. Now all he reblogs are food pictures and cute cat gifs."

 

"And Russian literary quotes."

 

Natasha rolled her eyes, "Yes, because _that_ is so much better."

 

Apparently, Natasha had a Tumblr too, Steve noted. Bucky pulled it up on the screen while they were tucked close together on the couch, Bucky's head on Steve's shoulder, the laptop on his lap, and an afghan thrown over the pair of them. NatTheWidow had a blog dedicated almost entirely to everything Russia, ranting about inaccuracies in spy novels, feminism, and _Orange is the New Black_ ("Internet television show," Bucky had informed Steve, "I hear it's really good.")

 

That got them re-vamping the entertainment portion of The List, capital letters, as Sam liked to say.

 

Steve wasn't so sure of that, but he let it go.

 

They started with the fifth or so Disney movies they'd missed in their seventy year hiatus, and Tony "Can you stop reblogging Lion King gifs fucking _please_ Barnes" Stark convinced them to drag Sam along with them from DC to Avenger's Tower in Manhattan for "team bonding nights" comprised of pizza, rootbeer floats, and movie marathons some time after they'd jumped from Maleficent to marathoning Vampire Diaries.

 

"He's perfectly justified. They murdered his whole fucking crew for what? He's avenging them! How is he the bad guy?" Bucky exclaimed from behind the couch, staring dumbstruck at the screen where _Star Trek: Into Darkness_ was playing, a fresh beer in his hand.

 

"Maybe because he blackmailed, killed, and terrorized millions of civilians to do it," Steve suggested offhandedly.

 

Bucky looked down at him skeptically, vaulting over the back of the couch to plop down on the cushions, resting his head in Steve's lap and his feet on Sam's. "Big words from the guy who wrecked Manhattan _and_ DC in less than twelve hours."

 

"Next time we'll politely ask the alien invaders and sleeper Nazi cells to have more respect for the city architecture while they're trying to take over the planet. Our bad," Tony quipped, quirking an eyebrow at Bucky and Steve. He gave Natasha a pointed glance as she came into the kitchen balancing a tumbler of vodka, popcorn, and fruit salad like that somehow made her junk food movie night binge remotely healthier. She ignored him, sitting on a floor pillow beside Pepper.

 

"It is indeed unfortunate at the destruction innocents encounter in the face of tyranny," Thor remarked, and Bucky raised his eyebrows, tilting his head back in Steve's lap to better look at the god upside down, Steve's hands anchored in his hair. "But I do not believe that fault lies in our hands."

 

Dr. Banner nodded, "Right. Accidents happen."

 

Bucky scoffed. "Destroying Manhattan isn't exactly what I'd call an 'accident' but okay. You're all just lucky people don't freak out like they did in _The Incredibles_."

 

"Who let him watch that?" Tony remarked.

 

Steve shrugged, "It was on the list."

 

"Did you make him watch _Man of Steel_ and _the Dark Knight Trilogy_ too?"

 

"The Joker was epic," was Bucky's only answer to this.

 

Steve frowned, " _You_ put them on the list, Tony."

 

"What the—" Bucky started, waving at the screen. "I thought he was supposed to be emotionless. Didn't you say he was supposed to be emotionless? He's about to beat this guy to pulp with his bare-assed hands for killing Kirk."

 

"They're best friends," Dr. Banner pointed out.

 

"He doesn't even have strong reactions like that for his girlfriend," Natasha spoke up. "I'm totally on her side, even if it is a cultural thing."

 

"He _died_. Kirk's _dead_." Banner reiterated.

 

"Uhura almost got butchered right in front of him but Cling-ons," Natasha replied.

 

"Like Barnes wouldn't react like this to Capsicle dying," Tony stated, and five pairs of eyes swiveled to Bucky, shaking his head and typing quickly on his phone while Steve ran his fingers through the long dark strands out hair, frowning thoughtfully at the screen.

 

He shook his head. "They're fucking. I knew it. I called it. Didn't I call it after we marathoned the original series, Stevie?"

 

"Yeah, Buck, okay."

 

"T'hy'la's just a figure of speech my ass," Bucky shook his head, reaching up to tug on Steve's hair as he dropped his phone onto his stomach. "You ought to know better, punk."

 

"Jerk," Steve responded, smiling fondly down at the assassin when a startled, choked gasp came from the kitchen. The Avenger's heads swiveled to watch as Clint stalked into the room, pointing his phone at Buckh threateningly.

 

"Why do you _do_ this?"

 

"You don't _have_ to look at my posts, Barton."

 

"It's on my _dash_ ," Clint replied tersely.

 

Tony laughed and shook his head, "Calm down Katniss, you make it sound like Father Time here posted porn up. He might go into shock. Scandalous."

 

Bucky rolled his eyes, and Steve tossed Tony a dry look. "Your generation didn't _actually_ invent sex."

 

Clint made a pained noise, and an awkward silence descended for everyone except Bucky who quirked an eyebrow at the sputtering archer and Steve who moved one hand from Bucky's hair, down his arm, to settle on his chest, fingers tapping a rhythm over his heart. The assassin made a low noise in the back of his throat and shifted to press further into Steve, never taking his eyes off Clint as he lips curled up into a smirk. Natasha barked out a laugh.

 

Tony gaped at Bucky. "What...you...he... _no_."

 

"I can never _unsee_ this, Bucky. Why would you even do this to me?" Clint demanded.

 

Bucky shrugged. "I ship it."

 

"You _ship_ it?" Clint repeated, throwing his hands up and muttering to himself, "He ships it."

 

"Do you even know what that word _means_ , Red Dawn?" Tony demanded.

 

"I got that reference!" Steve declared proudly, and Bucky reached up to pat him on the cheek indulgently but still with obvious affection.

 

"What is shipping?" Dr. Banner replied.

 

"It's a Tumblr thing," Sam answered. "What do you ship?"

 

"Spirk."

 

"Spirk?" Dr. Banner tried again. "What's a Spirk?"

 

"Who _are_ you?" Tony cried cheerfully, looking at Bucky. "The 90-year-old virgin cap here can barely work text messaging, and you're shipping Spirk on Tumblr and retreating soft-core Spirk porn gifs? I'm so proud! But also kind of terrified."

 

Bucky raised his eyebrows highly amused, looking between Steve and Tony. Steve rolled his eyes and shook his head. "He think you're a virgin?"

 

"Of course. We all know Capsicle can't give it up until marriage. It's okay. I ordered his purity ring in the mail."

 

"JARVIS," Dr. Banner tried again, "can _you_ translate what's going on here into something resembling English."

 

"I confess, I am also bewildered by this exchange. I would greatly appreciate some clarification my artificially intelligent friend."

 

"Spirk porn. Destiel fanart. Larry Stylinson posts––"

 

"Who _doesn't_ ship Larry Stylinson."

 

"I still say bromance, man," Sam shook his head.

 

Natasha scoffed, and Steve tossed his friend a highly skeptical look. Sam shrugged, and Tony looked between them all, shocked and thrilled by the whole thing. Bucky gave Sam a droll look, "Just stop."

 

"What's next?" Clint exclaimed.

 

It was, it seemed, a bad question, because 'what's next' turned out to be Bucky taking everyone's complete and utter distress and/or amused bewilderment to the next level. Redbubble had provided an endless supply of Destiel ("Dean and Cas from _Supernatural_ , Stevie. You know, the heart eyes and sexual tension and 'he always comes when you call him.'" "I know when you're making innuendoes, Buck. Nice try. And, okay, yes, I can see that one; they are obvious, aren't they"), Sterek ("Yes, Buck, Derek Hale and Stiles Stilinski. Why are we watching this again? This is an awful show, and no, I don't get your obsession with this pairing. At all"), Maleval ("Isn't Diaval and Maleficent more of a bromance, though?" "They raised a child together, Stevie! _Try_ not to be dense"), Johnlock ("Don't even try to say this isn't gay as fuck." "Did I say anything?"), and Larry ("I don't really need to be convinced, Bucky." "I know but no one else appreciates the proof videos and these excellently done manips so humor me, please?") merchandise that no one could run away from, even Thor had been gifted with a massive "Some People Ship Destiel, Get Over It" t-shirt that threatened to rip under his bulging muscles.

 

Steve was just glad his usage of Tumblr was limited to when Bucky scrolled through the program while resting his back against Steve's chest, pointing things out and making snarky comments while Steve read whatever history book, biography, or memoir he'd gotten himself into.

 

He wasn't exactly sure when him and Bucky officially moved from DC into Stark-turned-Avengers Tower, but when he woke up and made his coffee on the Keurig and noticed the knife tucked just behind the toaster oven, he realized they (and Bucky's extensive knife collection) had officially moved in. Sam had followed when Tony had presented him with custom, handmade, top-of-the-line new wings, an offer of his own floor rent free, and JARVIS's dry wit available 24/7, transferring from the DC VA clinic to New York's and continuing to drag Bucky along behind him without pause.

 

While Steve enjoyed having a gym, a shoot ranging, and an excellent view of New York right outside his balcony, he was too used to be alone (not counting Bucky) still not to get overwhelmed by the all the sudden people who maneuvered through the Tower at all hours and with access to him. Tony came in and out as he pleased pushing boundaries, dropping snarky comments, and being a general nuisance. Pepper was great but when she showed up in Steve and Bucky's kitchen it tended to be about press, which Steve could go his whole life never ever dealing with ever again. Natasha had less boundaries than Tony. Sam knew he could ignore them entirely and get away with it when it came to Steve at least, though Bucky tended to let it go after only a dark, warning look and a dramatic storm out of the room. Clint was a spy, which said all it really needed to, and the one time Fury had shown up Steve's living room to talk about a Hydra cell in Atlanta, Bucky had had a full on meltdown and ended up being restrained by Steve and had spent the next day curled up around Steve in bed going over and over his attempted assassination of Nick.

 

Good times.

 

When the door of Steve's bedroom burst open at nearly midnight while Steve was half asleep in Bucky's lap while he scrolled through something on his tablet, eyebrows furrowed and Billie Elliot coming from the record player in the corner of the room, Steve narrowed his eyes dangerously at his friend standing in the doorway.

 

"JARVIS," Steve ground out.

 

"I am sorry, sir. I did try to stop him but he does have unrestricted access to the floor."

 

"Your idiot move, punk," Bucky pointed out.

 

Steve sighed. "I know a lot's changed in the last century, Sam, but I'm certain that knocking is still a widespread social norm."

 

Bucky quirked an eyebrow, "You been reading those sociology books again, Stevie?"

 

"They're interesting."

 

"They're _something_ ," Bucky muttered before looking up at Sam and offering him a dangerous smile. "Wilson. What could you possibly want at midnight?"

 

"You know, Barnes, when I suggested you exploring other parts of pop culture, I was thinking Fruit Ninja or Beyonce or Grand Theft Auto or contemporary literature––"

 

"We already read _Fifty Shades of Grey_ ; I'd rather not go back to that."

 

" _Gone Girl_ was good, and _The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time_ ," Steve mumbled, still half asleep.

 

Bucky hummed in agreement, carding his fingers through Steve's short blond hair, "I could read _A Clockwork Orange_ a time or two."

 

"Uh-huh."

 

Sam blinked at them. "Are you naked?"

 

"Are you sleeping with Natasha?" Bucky responded pointedly.

 

"Never mind," Sam said hastily. Steve rolled his eyes, and Bucky just stared at Sam, unamused and unimpressed. "I wasn't thinking fanfiction. I mean, that's twenty fic recs today alone."

 

"What's wrong with fanfiction?" Bucky inquired, confused. "It's an excellent avenue to explore the homoerotic subtext in film and television that's underrepresented by mass media because of how a portion of the general public would receive it. Which is bullshit, but society," Bucky shrugged and shook his head in disappointment.

 

"Your Joker and Batman obsession is pretty weird," Steve muttered.

 

"Shut up, punk," Bucky replied. "He absolutely wants to fuck Batman. He admits it in almost every single issue, but Harlequin is socially acceptable."

 

"Man, he's in love with Harlequin," Sam argued, gaping at the pair of them while his mind wrapped around Bucky and Steve sprawled naked in bed together being domestic while the room still smelled like sex and their half used bottle of lube sat on Bucky's bedside table. Not that he had anything against it, but he'd grown up hearing the words 'brothers' thrown around about the pair, so the lube, sex, and naked in bed together was a little hard to reconcile.

 

"No," Steve spoke up, cracking open one eye to look at Sam in sheer disbelief. "Respect, yeah, but no way does the Joker love Harlequin. What comic book have _you_ been reading, Sam?" He paused, though and glanced up at Bucky. "'Homoerotic subtext?' Have _you_ been reading my sociology books again, jerk?"

 

"Maybe, Stevie," Bucky remarked, glancing down at America's icon with heat in his eyes and his tone husky and low, "what are you gonna do about it, punk?" He tugged on Steve's hair and a moan yanked out of Steve's throat.

 

Sam didn't think he could literally watch his childhood disappear in a sex-addled blaze before his eyes without having a panic attack. "Wow. Okay. That escalated quickly. Don't mind me standing here."

 

"Why are you still standing there, then?" Bucky shot back, looking up at him, "Get out, Wilson."

 

"Right, yep, okay."

 

"And don't talk shit about fanfiction!" Bucky called out as Sam hurried out of the room, closing the door behind him, but not soon enough to avoid hearing his friend and childhood hero say, "Christ Buck, will you shut up about fanfiction and fuck me, please?"

 

With all that talk about homoerotic subtext and underrepresentation in the media (and his downright biblical affiliation with Captain America himself) that Bucky was a closet Crusader. He'd grown up in Brooklyn where queers gave blowjobs in back alleys down by the docks and drag queens got arrested biweekly during raids on speakeasies and gay bars, served in a desegregated unit in the military, and had spent seventy years being tortured.

 

Bucky Barnes had opinions, strong ones, and if he'd never backed down from a fight Steve started with bullies in Brooklyn, then God help him if he would on the Internet.

 

It started out entertaining, the Avengers watching him square off with some twelve year old tween over Larry Stylinson like it was life altering and ending with an eloquent 'fuck off, I know what the hell I'm talking about you trolling het girl bitch,' and ended up quickly becoming controversial enough that Pepper had taken one look at it and promptly ordered him to "please, dear God stay anonymous."

 

He hadn't exactly agreed, but he hadn't argued either.

 

According to the quickly becoming Tumblr famous Starbucks32557, radical feminists were ruining it for everyone else ("I've met quite a few women in my many years roaming this Earth who managed to be a strong, empowered woman and a feminist with being a fucking man-hating psychopath"), anti-vaccination protestors were fucking nuts ("remember polio? Oh, wait, no you don't because people were _vaccinated_ to prevent that plague from crippling America's youth, but please yes bring it back again you crazy ass hippies"), pro-choice shouldn't even be a question ("are _you_ going to provide the child that they don't want, don't need, and probably can't afford emotionally, physically, or monetarily, then shut up"), American foreign policy sucked ("really, why are you getting involved?"), veterans needed more assistance from the government ("you send 'em out, fuck 'em up, and then tell them to work it out when they get back, then punish them when they can't"). His biggest kick, though, was anything having to do with LGBTQIA rights (although, he'd had to Google what the hell that even meant).

 

Passionate didn't even begin to cover his virtual persona's stance on LGBTQIA equality on Tumblr. He had a tendency to slay the Westboro Baptist Church's existence every time they were even mentioned in passing in the news, balked at people actually thinking Don't Ask, Don't Tell shouldn't have been repealed even if he did believe it would take a lot more than saying that legal action and dishonorable discharge couldn't be taken against gays in the military to make it actually accepted, and didn't pull punches when it came to Russia's policy on the LGBTQIA community.

 

His most recent Tumblr argument about equal rights had been screenshotted, printed out, and posted on all the Tower floors:

 

Anonymous: You actually think queers should be allowed to get married?

Bucky: I actually think that term is considered insulting currently. And why do you care if same sex couples get married? who gives a fuck?

Anonymous: They're ruining traditional family values?

Bucky: Is the Westboro Baptist Church pranking me? Divorce is at 50%, stepping out on spouses is considered a social norm, teen pregnancy has been turned into a reality television show, millions of kids across America are put into the foster care system every year, but a gay couple wanting to marry and either adopt (which they can't do despite the huge number of kids looking to be adopted who were given up by heterosexual couples) or use a surrogate to have their own kid is the end of the world. You need to sort out your priorities asshole. I mean, fuck off. Really.

 

It was two weeks after that incident that Pepper Potts stormed into the communal dining room where the entirety of the Avengers and their assorted friends and significant others had gathered around a colossal tower of Artichoke's Pizza boxes, chicken wings, and bottles of alcohol and soda, slamming a stack of magazines down on the table in front of Bucky while the whole room went silent.

 

"Anonymous," Pepper repeated, "I told you to stay anonymous, Bucky. This is not anonymity. This is the complete opposite of anonymity. Do you know what that word means?"

 

Steve came up behind Bucky, crossing his arms over his chest and effectively and wordlessly presenting a united front that had been revered and extolled since the 1940s. Really, even Pepper didn't stand a chance against that.

 

Bucky looked up at her levelly. "I know that Russia allowed citizens to beat to death hundreds of LGBT equal rights protestors in the streets while the police did nothing. I know that half a dozen states are still debating whether or not gay marriage should be allowed. I know that there are kids out there struggling every day to be who they are and are under and poorly represented in mass media because it might 'offend' somebody, and I know that I was born in a time when I could have been beaten and arrested and killed just like those protestors in Russia so much so that it took me until I was in a warzone after being tortured by some mad German scientist to accepted who I loved and who I am. I made a judgment call."

 

Pepper glared at him even as her eyes softened, "It was reckless."

 

"I learned from Steve," Bucky pointed out.

 

"Jerk," Steve tugged on Bucky's ponytail.

 

Bucky smiled softly and tilted his head back, peering up at Steve with a facial expression so utterly full of love and adoration and devotion that it was astounding none of the other Avengers had known until less than twelve hours ago (with the exception of Sam and probably Natasha because she knew everything, it seemed) that Bucky and Steve were a hell of a lot more than just best friends and brothers.

 

Tony pulled a magazine towards him, staring at the cover picture and sniffed jokingly, "T'hy'la."

 

"Do you need a moment to collect your feelings, sir?"

 

"Yes, Cap lied to me. He's not a virgin at all."

 

"I never said I was. That was you being absolutely ridiculous, Tony. I'm ninety-nine not dead."

 

"Not dead," Natasha patted him, "just domesticated."

 

"Wasn't Barnes the feral one?" Tony asked, and Bucky narrowed his eyes and bared his teeth at Tony in an intimidating impression of a smile. "Just asking."

 

Pepper sighed, "I'm going to go answer a million phone calls about this and set up an interview neither of you want to do to talk about a relationship you outed on social media on a blog I told you not to acknowledge. Don't need me. Don't start a war. Don't break the East Coast. At least for the next six hours." She snagged a piece of pizza and pressed a kiss to Tony's cheek as she brushed passed.

 

Steve smiled softly at Bucky and leaned down to press a soft, close-mouthed kiss to his mouth. He pulled back, but Bucky wasn't having it, reaching up to tangle his fingers in Steve's hair and pull him back down into a harder, passionate kiss. Their friends cheered and whistled, and Steve pulled back, blushing, while Bucky smirked proudly. Shaking his head, Steve gave him another kiss and murmured, "I'm proud of you, punk."

 

Bucky beamed, eyes watering as he stared up at his best friend with wide eyes.

 

And in the middle of the table was the photo that had popped up on Tumblr hours before dawn with every Avenger tagged in it of Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers with the comforter pulled up, a flush on their skin, and their eyes locked on each other, Steve's hands in Bucky's hair and Bucky's cybernetic hand on Steve's cheeks, not a pocket of air between them. Intimate. Obviously post-coital. And undoubtedly a couple of America's longest running icons in complete and utter love with each other, the text underneath reading: 'My best friend, partner, and captain, 80+ years and I'm still in love with him (and his incredible ass) as the day we met #stucky #otp #canon'

 

So, yeah, okay maybe Pepper had a point.

 

And maybe if there was a link to it on Captain America's official Twitter account, then, really, everybody should no better than to believe Tony, Steve survived basic poverty, basic training, and taking a serum that altered his genes and body, he could adjust to 21st century tech, and, anyway, Bucky knew his password.

**Author's Note:**

> I always feel like disclaimers are a necessary thing: my best friend is emo so don't actually get offended, it's a general misconception and that's why it's in here (and why Pepper knows what's up). Also, I've never actually written anything where politics are mentioned but let's not get into. They were ideology that I formulated Bucky's character might align with based on his past experiences and the way he grew up. And vatrushka is an actual dish I want to try. It looks delicious like a glazed flying saucer of cake.


End file.
